SALISBURY, Md. - The game never got comfortable for the top-ranked Salisbury University Sea Gulls as they survived an intense men's lacrosse game against No. 5 Lynchburg College, 10-9, on an overcast and frigid Saturday afternoon before a crowd of 740 at Sea Gull Stadium. Salisbury (2-0), the defending NCAA Division III national champions, increases its regular-season winning streak to 64 games as the home mark now stands at 62 consecutive games. Lynchburg was the last team to beat Salisbury at Sea Gull Stadium with a 13-12 loss on April 10, 2003.

"I am proud we won today. They are a good team," said SU coach Jim Berkman. "We made some mistakes clearing the ball and we didn't shot well at times. We will have to learn from our mistakes."

The Sea Gulls scored their fifth goal of the third quarter when senior attackman Greg Titus fired home his fourth goal of the game off an assist from junior midfielder Kylor Berkman (one goal, four assists) at the 1:32 mark. SU held its largest lead on the day, 10-6, but the Gulls wouldn't score the rest of the game.

Lynchburg (0-1) won the ensuing faceoff and darted to the Salisbury goal where senior attackman Stephen Weis beat Sea Gull goalie Riley Clark (nine saves) for the goal. It only took the Hornets 12 seconds to score on that play.

The fourth quarter started with the Hornets a man-up and 40 seconds later junior attackman Michael Mundorf was sprawled out in the SU crease celebrating his first goal of the season. Mundorf came around the backside of the Sea Gull goal and lost SU defender Ben Sandlin, in the process, as he tight roped the right side of crease to sneak a shot past Riley. Lynchburg stun the Salisbury defense minutes later when Weis scored his third unassisted goal at the 10:48 mark to cut the Sea Gull lead to one, 10-9.

Salisbury struggled with face-offs in the second half as Lynchburg won 7-of-12 and 12-of-22 for the game. The Hornets outshot the Sea Gulls 25-14 in the second half and 44-36 for the game. Salisbury scooped up 38 ground balls to 29 by Lynchburg. The Gulls were 3-for-8 on extra-man opportunities while the Hornets went 0-for-5.

SU had several chances to put the game away in the fourth quarter but couldn't get a shot past Lynchburg goalie Garrett Curran (11 saves). The Hornets cleared the ball into the Sea Gull offensive end with 1:12 left in the game down by one goal. Senior midfielder Taylor Stehlgens turned the ball over seconds later as long-stick midfielder Ryan Browning came in to break up the Stehlgens pass and picked up the ground ball. Salisbury secured its 22nd clear of the day (22-for-26) but Stehlgens caused a Matt Hickman (two goals) turnover with 43 seconds left.

Lynchburg's Ryan Cranston (one goal, one assist) came up with the ground ball and cleared the ball with 32 seconds left in the game. Cranston unleashed a shot wide to force a Salisbury timeout. The Hornets got off two final shots, from Stehlgens and Cranston, and had one more chance as the final seconds ticked off the scoreboard. Lynchburg worked the ball around at the top of the offensive box but senior midfielder Johnny Black (two goals) could not hold onto a pass as the ball went out of bounds with a second left.

"This is a huge win for us this early in the season," said Sandlin. "We had to lockdown in the final minute. We had to stop them."

The two teams traded goals in the first quarter. Salisbury jumped out with a Titus man-up goal and a goal by junior attackman Patrick Bonanno (two goals). Both goals were assisted by Kylor Berkman in the first seven minutes. Lynchburg answered with back-to-back goals by Black as the game was knotted at two apiece after one quarter.

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2008-02-23